The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-15
NEW THING IN ATHLETICS
FORMATION OF NATIONAL CROSS
COUNTRY ASSOCIATIONS
That Put to Shame Nearly All Other
KiEds Of Sport, Exercising
Every Muscle.
lcoRREsroSDKSoE OF rHE APPKAL.l


tory of American amateur athletic
sports. After several formal gath.
eriDgs six clubs have signed the
membership roll-Manhattan, Mas
sau and Olympic Athletic Clubs
Prospect and Suburban Harriers
and New York Hare and Hounds
An executive committee of one
member from each club was elected
and this committee selected as their
officers: President, G. G. Hughes, Of
the Manhattan Athletic Club; vice
president, W. Halpin, OF the Olym
pic Athletic Club, and secretary,
4. c. Carter, of the Suburban Har-
riers, New York Athletic Club.
Cross country running has no peer
in the long list OF outdoor games. 1t
has all the excitement and all the
beneficial effects of any other manly
exercise, and is moreover of actual
practical value. In the ordinary
after life of an athlete it will make
little difference to him whether he
can run 100 yards in ten seconds or
fifteen secOnds;whether he can throw
the hammer 100 feet or sixty feet:
whether he can clear a bar
at six feet or at four feet;
whether he can run a quarter of
mile in forty eight seconds or fifty
eight seconds; whether he can put
the shot torty-three feet or thirty
three feet. Proficiency in any of
these games is in fact very unlikely
to prove of any practical value to
him. But almost every person will
sooner or later meet an occasion
where property or even life can be
saved if there is at hand man who
can in his ordinary street attire cover
eight or nine miles in an hour over
ordinary roads and through fields,
and this ability comes from cross
country running and from no other
game. Even our long distance run
ners who hold the records around
smooth cinder paths are with per-
haps two notable exceptious) only
tenth rate men when started across
rough country.
America has had two or three cross
country clubs for about ten years;
but the sport languished, and at
times became almost extinct until
the past season, when the game sud
denly sprang into popularity, dozen
clubs were formed 10 the vicinity of
New York City, aud almost every
Saturday during the last six months
there have been one or more cross
country runs.
There are several variations to the
game. la the ordinary paper chase
two or three athletes, designated as
hares, are started from the rallying
point, each carrying a large canvas
bag filled with shreds or clippings of
paper. White paper is used when
the ground is bare, and blue and red
paper when the fields are covered
with snow. These hares run wher-
ever they please, laying out a course
of about the agreed length, and fin
ishing, OF course, at a designated
point. At every few yards of
their journey they scatter
a handful of their paper, and thus
establish train that is easily fol-
lowed. There are all sorts of tricks
known to these hares. At a cross
roads one will go up one road and
one the other, each scattering
trail, and join each other beyond,
thus battling their pursuers, who will
be abliged to follow up each trail to
find which is the genuine, They
Sometimes also lay train down the
bank OF brook or river, go to some
leighboring bridge, cross, and COM
Ing back start their paper train just
opposite the mark on the other side,
so that the hounds will be led to
think that the train leads straight
across the river. Various devices OF
this character are employed by the
hares to perplex and battle their pur-
suers. Five or ten minutes after
the hares are started the remainder
of the athletes, commonly known as
the "pack" or the hounds" are
turned loose on the trail, and follow
ing it as well as they can attempt to
overtake the hares before the finish
line is reached.
There are several methods of
conducting these chases. Sometimes
each hound runs for himself, follows
the trail as best he can, trying to
overtake the flying hares and finish
first. At other times there are APP
pointed from the houHds one man
known as the pace maker" who
leads the pack, and two others known
as "whippers in, " who bring up the
rear. None are permitted to run
ahead of the 'e maker, and the
whippers in keep the laggards in
line and encourage them when ex-
hausted. At some agreed distance,
generally mile or mile and half
from the finish, the pace maker
halts until all close up aud then a
fair start is made for the run home.
There are several kinds OF chases.
Besides the regular paper chase men
TONED above, sometimes the entire
pack, hare aud hounds together, are
started from given point to reach
another designated point, every man
for himself, each to find his own road
and get there as best he can. In an
other style the pack is divided into
two parts; the hares first start, five
minutes later the slow pack, and after
another interval the fast pack. By
thus dividing the hounds into two
squads, according to their ability,
more interest is aroused; the men
are all nearer together at the finish
and the fast men are never Obliged to
wait while the slow ones catch up.
There are also sometimes individual
handicaps, where over a course of
given length which has been fire.
Quently marked out and trail laid,
each man is allowed such a start as
the handicapped thinks just, and each
runs Tor himself so to escape his pur-
suers and overtake his leader.
These various styles aud methods
give diversity to the sport and suit
different tastes, but practically
there is little difference between
them. The main fact 10 that No